Those who are against her have become the head, everything goes well for her haters; for the Lord has sent sorrow on her because of the great number of her sins: her young children have gone away as prisoners before the attacker.

Great is the sin of Jerusalem; for this cause she has become an unclean thing: all those who gave her honour are looking down on her, because they have seen her shame: now truly, breathing out grief, she is turned back.

(Yod) An enemy grabbed all her valuables. Indeed she watched in horror as Gentiles invaded her holy temple -- those whom you had commanded: "They must not enter your assembly place."

(Nun) My sins are bound around my neck like a yoke; they are fastened together by his hand. He has placed his yoke on my neck; he has sapped my strength. The Lord has handed me over to those whom I cannot resist.

Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries: Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

I called to those loving me, they deceived me: my priests and my old men expired in the city, for they sought food for them, and they will turn back their souls.

(Vav) He destroyed his temple as if it were a vineyard; he destroyed his appointed meeting place. The Lord has made those in Zion forget both the festivals and the Sabbaths. In his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest.

The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you.

(Tav) As if it were a feast day, you call enemies to terrify me on every side. On the day of the Lord's anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has finished off those healthy infants whom I bore and raised.

He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago.

(Tet) The Lord is good to those who trust in him, to the one who seeks him.

Without cause my enemies
Hunted me down like a bird;

The lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day.

(He) Those who once feasted on delicacies are now starving to death in the streets. Those who grew up wearing expensive clothes are now dying amid garbage.

(Tet) Those who died by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, those who waste away, struck down from lack of food.

The kings of the earth believed not, and all those dwelling in the habitable globe, that the enemy will come in to the gates of Jerusalem.

"Go away! Unclean!" they shouted at them. "Go away! Go away! Don't touch!" When they fled away and wandered, those among the nations decreed, "They cannot live here!"

(Qof) Those who pursued us were swifter than eagles in the sky. They chased us over the mountains; they ambushed us in the wilderness.

Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.